Saturday, July 25, 2015

We
love our furry feline friends! They are wonderful
companions without the over neediness of their canine counterparts. Our shop
cats, Cat and Poly, make our work days a joy and remind us to play, stretch,
relax, gaze out the window and enjoy the occasional catnap or two.

Gerbera daisies are non-toxic to cats and dogs.

Cats are the furry
part of our families that make our houses homes. They tend to be curious, eager
to take a nibble or two (or many many more) on that beautiful bouquet of
flowers your beau just brought you, so it is important that when you’re enjoying
your flowers and plants they can be enjoyed by your kitties too!

Carnations are toxic to dogs and cats, but they make a lovely collar.

Roses are non-toxic to cats and dogs.

So
how will you know if a particular plant or flower is potentially toxic? Thanks
to the internet we can check these things out in a flash! We recommend starting
with the ASPCA Animal
Poison Control Center website where you can find a searchable list
of both toxic and non-toxic plants for both cats and dogs. It’s best to know
the scientific name as well as the common name of the plants or flowers when
doing your pet homework, since sometimes multiple plants with different characteristics
may share the same common name.

Coxcomb are non-toxic to cats and dogs.

Many plants that your cats may munch of
will cause nothing worse than a little digestive upset, but some may cause more
serious health issues. Some common flowers and plants that are toxic to both
cats and dogs are: aloe, amaryllis, azaleas,
baby’s breath, begonias, bird of paradise, and tulips. Members of the Lilium
genus, including asiatic, casablanca, Easter,
and stargazer lilies, can cause serious kidney problems (and possibly even
death) if ingested by cats.

Phillip is ready for date night with his top hat and non-toxic rose.

So what is a pet friendly bouquet? A
bouquet consisting of plants and flowers that are not considered to be toxic to
pets (primarily cats and dogs) of course. Flowers such as roses, African
daisies, orchids and most ferns and plants such as bromeliads, African violets
and Christmas cactus are non-toxic
(although any ingested plant material might occasionally cause mild upset) and
would be suitable as to have in households with pets.

Here is a brief list of "pet
friendly" flowers and plants courtesy of Dr. Sharon Gwaltney-Brant, Vice
President and Medical Director of the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.

Chrysanthemums are toxic to dogs and cats, but ok for stuffed dinosaurs.

So love your cats and your flowers too! Be
sure to seek out or create “pet friendly” bouquets and plants when looking for
something special for yourself or when sending a gift to a pet owner. Call us
at 800-887-4013 and we can help you in your cat friendly quest. Meow!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

It’s hot. The sun beats
down from a cloudless sky through stagnant humid air, falling upon human,
animal, plant and the inanimate alike. The streets absorb the heat to the point
that the tar becomes almost fluid and if a car drove by it would surely find itself
stuck. As you stand stationary you feel beads of sweat form and roll down your
face and back; any movement would surely cause a sweat so profuse it would seep
through your clothes leaving you wet, embarrassed and somehow even hotter
still. The air is so thick you could practically chew on it if it wasn’t
choking you. Vision clouding waves of heat fall into view, distorting the
landscape of motionless blades of grass and unmoving trees full and heavy with
summer’s bounty. Squirrels, birds, feral cats and that fat backyard groundhog
you nicknamed Sebastian long for any kind relief as they struggle just to
breathe, and you swear they somehow know about air conditioning and are jealous
when they see humans retreat indoors with their beloved chosen pets. The sun is
a relentless furnace with no breeze to calm its fiery breath. It’s just... So. Damn.
Hot. These are the dog days of summer.

Poodle Winston couldn't be happier with his yellow ranunculus!

We are in the thick of
it! The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional
period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11. We
thought the best way to pass this time would be to pair some of our favorite
pooches with pretty petals!

Miniature poodle Sherman is celebrating with flowers!

The
Romans referred to the dog days as diēs
caniculārēs and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They
considered Sirius to be the "Dog Star" because it is the brightest
star in the constellation Canis Major or Great Dog.

Layla enjoyed her visit to Steins!

The
Ancient Greeks thought that Sirius's emanations could affect dogs adversely,
making them behave abnormally during the "dog days," the hottest days
of the summer. Their excessive panting in hot weather was thought to place them
at risk of desiccation and disease.

Those cats are interfering with my flowers!

According
to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria,
1813, the Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time "the Sea
boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became
languid; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and
phrensies."

If you can tolerate an outdoor picnic during the dog days of summer, don't forget to pack your poodle!

Here
at Stein Your Florist we have a mixed bag of feelings about the Dog Days of
Summer… Some of us love it, enjoying every second they can in the heat, reveling
in a visit to the beach, basking in the sun’s rays and holding joyous backyard barbecues full of levity and fireworks…

Leo loves his rainbow roses!

Others
not so much, longing for the days of winter, stating “those snowstorms weren’t
so bad,” lamenting over how hot it’s going to be when they get in their cars to
go home, complaining about their summer wardrobe and emphatically stating that
the flowers just don’t like it!

That's one patriotic pooch!

Like
it or lump it, it is what it is. The Dog Days of Summer are here, but autumn’s
relief will arrive soon enough and we may find that we miss summer’s verdant
hues and that devastating feeling of passing out as soon as you step outside.

Elliott is looking good in his floral anklet!

Sherman is stylin' in his collar of black-eyed Susans!

It's hot out! Stay inside and pamper your pooch with peonies and a PETicure (wow, that was a cheesy pun even for us).

Jah Rastafari!

For those hot summer weddings when you ask, "why didn't we get married in the spring?"

Thursday, July 2, 2015

The Cheltenham Art
Center once again invited our floral artists to their annual Art in Bloom,
Floral Interpretations of Paintings event. The event is a fundraiser benefiting
many of the wonderful programs that take place all year at the art center. Six
of our talented designers took to their workbenches to create their floral
versions of beautiful paintings by local artists.

Stein Your Florist Co. owner/operator and designer Patrick Kelly chose to interpret “Prayer Rug One” by Karen S. Davies. Patrick
chose a heavy stone container as the base of his arrangement and added matching
pebbles to the surface of the pedestal to accent the dark blacks and grays of
the painting. All the flora is dried and preserved, including: millet, hydrangea, Spanish moss, branches,
grasses, berries, seed pods, limonium, and heather. The dried materials have a
wonderful textural look, which complimented the painting’s dimensional
qualities perfectly. The painting’s artist was so impressed with Patrick’s
interpretation that she made a donation and bought the piece herself! She said
she simply couldn’t picture the painting without it!

Patrick also hosted a live
demonstration during the event, designing his interpretation of “Chaos in
Purple/Blue” by Norman Soong for the attendees. He created a chaotic
purple/blue design of his own with delphinium, agapanthus, statice, and novi
belgi asters, while also picking up on the painting’s flecks of orange with
hypericum berries. The arrangement is seated in a classic cobalt blue vase and
accented by a bit of ming fern. The painting’s artist recorded the entire
design process and the arrangement was awarded to the night’s lucky raffle
winner, who was thrilled to take the floral creation home with her!

"Avelthorpe" by Dera Kapnek interpreted by George Emberger of Stein Your Florist Co.

Stein Your Florist Co. designer
George Emberger chose to interpret “Avelthorpe” by Debra Kapnek. He said was drawn to the
trees in the painting and created a dark forest of his own with white branches
and deep blue delphinium with pops of golden yellow solidego asters and wispy
accents of bear grass. He completed his forest floor with sheet moss and dark
gray river rocks. George was awarded Best in Show for Fun and Fantastic Design
for his interpretation.

Co-operations manager of our
Burlington, NJ location and designer Jessica Kelly chose to interpret “Love Lies Bleeding” by Gail Fox.
Unintimidated by taking on such a large painting (it was more than five feet
wide), Jessica chose a large clear glass cylinder for her design, which she
filled with stones and soil, wanting to display the unseen “underground”
layers. In the center of her arrangement she used red ginger, purple liatris,
and birds of paradise to capture the colors and the height of the painting. At
the base of her design she planted succulents and tropical plants and accented
them with cut tree fern, ming fern and hypericum berries. Jessica’s
interpretation was purchased by one of the attendees.

Jennfer Kelly, Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ
location, head of social media and designer, chose to interpret ”Baggage” by
Nicholas Burns. Jennifer wanted to capture painting’s theme baggage, so she
used several vintage suitcases to stack around the design as well as to create
her arrangements in. To capture the flow of the painting she used a bundle of
curly willow, draping foliages like hanging eucalyptus, springeri and Thai
leaves and clusters of raffia. The flowers used are delphinium, solidego,
hydrangea, spray roses, hanging amaranthus, white agapanthus, calla lilies, a
pink antherium, and bird’s nest fern. She accented her bouquet with newspaper,
which was also present in the original painting. Jennifer was awarded Best in
Show for Mixed Media Design.

Floral designer William Kirk interpreted “Your Majesty” by
Edwina Brennan. William said that the painting reminded him of his own,
sometimes chaotic, way of thinking and he thought the painting suited his
design style perfectly. He choose bright blooms of bells of Ireland, dendrobium
orchids, blue roses, lisianthus, and miniature carnations to pick up on the
painting’s colors and captured the black swirling strokes of the painting with
rings of dried grapevine. The painting’s artist was there to see William’s
interpretation in person and she was touched by his vision.

Our final representation from Stein YourFlorist Co. was created by apprentice designer Carl Mishinski who
interpreted Rhythm by
Gerry Tuten. Carl built a freestanding armature on which to create his design
from Guatemalan river cane. He envisioned the painting as a tropical rainforest
and covered his structure with Thai leaves, hanging eucalyptus, hanging
amaranthus, leather leaf fern, ming fern, blue and black roses, and king
protea. Carl is also a graffiti artist so he called upon those skills to tint
some of his flora to mimic the colors of the painting. His work was one of the
largest pieces at the show and its’ impressive stature created quite the buzz!

Our designers have been invited back
to participate in the CCA’s event once again next spring. Two weeks prior we
will draw for spots to select from the art on display and plan our designs. We
are looking forward to another inspirational affair and we hope you will join
us.

We are captivated by the beauty of flowers every day. This blog is dedicated to the moments when we are completely enthralled with the joy of flowers. Thank you for partaking in these moments with us.

Your authors are the expert designers and staff of Stein Your Florist Co. and Steins at Sunset Florist. Formed in 1887 in Philadelphia, PA, Steins is the city's oldest florist and has been named Philadelphia's Favorite Florist. Our vision is to share our love of flowers with the world, while maintaining socially and ecologically responsible practices.

Flowers make the moment... Let us make a moment for you at Stein Your Florist Co.